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Numen/For Use is a collective working in the fields of conceptual art, scenography, industrial and spatial design.

The group’s early enterprises are characterized by experiments with impersonal design and radical formal reduction, deeply rooted in the tradition of high modernism and mainly applied to various synergetic total-design projects in Croatia. From 2004. onwards, after setting up a large scale site-specific project for the production of “Inferno” in the National Centre for Drama in Madrid, Numen/ For Use become intensely involved with scenography. Further realisations in theatres across Europe ensue. Since 2008. the collective turns its focus towards configuring objects and concepts without a predefined function, an activity resulting in the more hybrid and experimental works such as the N-Light series and Tape Installation.

This project one of the N-light series and it is amazing! Three out of six surfaces of the cube are made of flexible membrane (foil mirror) with air tank and a compressor connected to it and the other three mirrors are semi transparent spy-glass. By inflating or deflating the air tank, the membrane turns convex or concave, deforming the reflections. Watch the video!

Ronai David, Damien Mortini and Aurelien Gantier put together Christmas Experiments, a digital advent calendar that reveals a new web-based treat every day throughout December. Each one is the product of a different developer.

My favourite is Finding Home by Michael Anthony, which features a little ball of light that travels into amazing landscapes that change colours and time, going through mountains and space and then into a galaxy, it is pretty awesome!

In a single room, the Digital Revolution exhibition charts the rapid progression of mass consumer technology over the last 40 years.

For those seeking a dose of digital nostalgia, there was the chance to play classic arcade games like Pong (1972) and Pac Man (1980) or boot up early home computers such as the ZX Spectrum (1982).

I wasn’t the only one taking the opportunity to relive a misspent youth, recalling the shortcuts in Super Mario Bros (1985) and reminiscing about Ceefax – how we would wait for ages for it to scroll to the flight, cinema listing or concert we wanted to book, then having to frantically scribble down the details before it moved on.

It was interesting to see the varying reactions of visitors to these devices – some with fond recollection, others – who have never known a world without the internet – with amazement at the primitive technology.

The more up-to-date installations demonstrated how technology has been used in the creation of anything from recent blockbusters like Gravity to innovative music videos.

Where next?
All very interesting, but how can these ideas influence the future as a business?

A large screen (above) demonstrated how visual effects in the ground-breaking sci-fi film Inception (2010) were created. The fold-over sequence of Paris, much like a moving video version of Google Streetview, caught the imagination because it was gesture controlled. Users moved their hands over an invisible beam to control the visuals – something which could definitely be part of the broadcasting future. Imagine never having to search for the remote control, but simply controlling your TV by waving at it.

Energy Flow, produced by London collective FIELD, uses an algorithm – apparently based on Greek dramatic storytelling format – to piece together 10 pieces of video art in many permutations, rendering themselves to create different narratives each time.

Although it produced a slightly abstract video, it’s worth considering how this might be used in the creation of non-linear TV programmes. Much like Punchdrunks’ alternative theatre piece The Drowned Man, viewers may soon be able to dip in and out of different storylines, moving on as they please and gradually building a picture of the story presented. So, rather than moving through a storyline linearly from beginning to end, the plot is is depicted in layers, with each expanding upon the last, gradually filling in gaps and adding depth to viewers’ understanding.

Fragility of digitalPlay the World by Zach Lieberman drew audio from radio stations across the world, allowing the user to play clips via a piano keyboard. The end result was a cacophonous mix of jingles, adverts, music and bulletins, providing glimpses of a rich cultural tapestry.

A definite highlight for me was people-watching, seeing how visitors, particularly younger ones, interacted with the exhibits in different ways. There was delight and spontaneity, mixed with some trepidation and varying levels of attention span. Interfaces based on gesture or action, instead of touch, seemed to particularly appeal to younger visitors.

It was also interesting to note the importance of audio as well as video in many of the experiences. In many exhibits, visitors were using several senses at once to control the performance, leading to a far more active participation than just passively looking at paintings or watching TV.

The exhibition also served as a reminder of the fragility and inherent instability of much that is digital. A number of displays had crashed, were only partly working or had been withdrawn for repair.

Many of us live and breathe technology, but sometimes it’s good to sit back and take stock – to see where we’ve come from, in order to decide where we should go next.

My husband was telling me about this project yesterday because the company that he works for is broadcasting this event, and I found it amusing.
Viennese artist Alex Kiessling and Strukt Design studio will embark on a cross-border project that merges art and technology by using industrial robots to simultaneously create large-scale drawings in three european cities. Taking place at an event hosted by the Vienna tourist board on September 26th, 2013, ‘Long Distance Art’ will feed real-time tracking via satellite to the two remote robotic devices, one stationed in Berlin, at Breitscheidplatz, and the other in london, at trafalgar square, and will mirror Kiessling’s movements in real time. the project calls on the use of a prototyping program called vvvv, which facilitates the handling of large media environments with physical interfaces, real-time motion graphics, and audio and video that can interact with many users at the same time. once completed, Kiessling will take all three independent artworks from the various cities and join them together in a triptych.